Seed dispensers of many types are of course known in the agricultural planter art. Many dispensers operate on the basis of a seed can having a horizontal bottom in which a seed plate rotates on a vertical axis as the planter advances over the field. The seed plate is formed with a circular series of seed cells sized and shaped according to the seed to be planted so that normally one seed per cell is dropped according to the speed of rotation of the seed plate. Problems occur in dispensers of this type when hilly terrain is encountered. Other problems arise when more than one seed becomes carried by one cell. Efforts to overcome these and other problems have been made by resort to dispensers whose seed plates turn on horizontal axes, but so far as is known, none of these dispensers has been able to function accurately and efficiently.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other drawbacks have been eliminated in a novel design of dispenser including a casing forming a seed-containing chamber within which a seed plate or disk turns on a horizontal axis and has a rim formed with equally angularly spaced-apart seed-receiving cells of uniform size and shape according to the size and shape of the seed to be dispensed and planted. It is a feature of the invention that the casing and seed plate cooperate to function efficiently and accurately despite rather marked unevenness in the terrain. The interior of the casing is configured to assure that seeds are positively delivered at the lower part of the chamber to the lower cells of the plate as that part of the plate passes through the lower quantity of seeds. A further feature is the provision of means confining the cell-received seeds to the cells as the cells pass around the interior of the casing to be released at a discharge or outlet opening. A still further feature of the invention stems from the shape of the cells so that the seeds are accurately picked up and retained by the cells but are released from the cells at the proper interval without carry-over. The design features simplicity and substantially fool-proof operation.
Features and advantages other than thosenoted above will occur as a preferred embodiment of the invention is disclosed in detail in the ensuing description and accompanying drawings.